Global Courant 2023-05-05 02:09:38
Attorneys for E. Jean Carroll dropped her civil case against Donald Trump on Thursday, shortly after jurors were shown video of the statement in which the former president confused the accuser with his ex-wife Marla Maples.
The defense also dropped their case, but the judge left open the option for Trump, who had said he would not appear in person, to take the witness stand in defense, giving him until 5 p.m. Sunday to make up his mind. change.
U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan said he would consider reopening the defense case “in the interests of justice” if Trump changed his mind.
If he doesn’t, the trial would continue with closing arguments on Monday.
Trump’s lawyers said on Wednesday he will not testify and they will not call witnesses — a position Trump attorney Joe Tacopina reiterated at the end of court on Thursday when he rested. He told the judge that he had spoken with Trump on Thursday morning and waived his right to testify.
Trump, however, told reporters at a golf course in Ireland on Thursday that he was “going back to New York” because of the case.
When asked if he will attend the trial, he said: “I will probably attend,” according to one sky news video of his comments. “She’s fake,” he said of Carroll. “It is a shame.”
The judge took note of the reports from abroad when making his ruling. In his remarks in Ireland, Trump also criticized the judge, calling him “rough.”
Kaplan said if Trump decides he doesn’t want to testify on Sunday, “that ship has sailed.” He also added that he wouldn’t necessarily grant the request to reopen the trial if Trump changes his mind, but said it is “a possibility”.
While the jury did not see Trump in person on Thursday, they did see him on video screens in the courtroom of a statement he was on trial for in October.
“It’s Marla,” Trump said in one of the clips when he showed a photo of him, Carroll and Carroll’s ex-husband, in the 1980s.
“That’s Marla, yes. That’s my wife,” Trump continued before being corrected by his attorney, Alina Habba. “No, that’s Carroll,” Habba said. Trump then responded that the photo was “very blurry.”
Carroll has sued Trump for libel and defamation, accusing him of raping her in the dressing room of a Manhattan department store in the 1990s and then falsely accusing her of fabricating a “hoax” after she denied her claim in 2019 had made public.
In the excerpts played before the jury in Manhattan federal court, Trump claimed that despite Maples’ confusion, Carroll was “not my type.” He was later asked if the three women he married were his type. “Yes,” he replied.
Trump also acknowledged that when Carroll made her claims public in a book she authored, the then president accused her of boosting her sales with a fabricated story for financial and political reasons — even though he was not doing so at the time. does not know her political affiliation, her financial situation or her publisher.
When asked what the basis for his accusations was, Trump replied, “I don’t know.”
At other times in the video, he was more belligerent and repeatedly insulted Carroll during the statement, calling her an “asshole” and “sick” among other things.
Trump has repeatedly denied her rape allegation, saying he had been outspoken while publicly defending himself because he was “offended by this woman’s lie.”
“She’s a sick person in my opinion. Really sick. There’s something wrong with her,” Trump said.
In the statement, Trump also mocked two other women who accused him of sexual misconduct: Jessica Leeds, a retired stockbroker, and Natasha Stoynoff, a former reporter for People magazine.
Both testified at the trial. Leeds claims Trump groped her on a plane flight to New York in the late 1970s, while Stoynoff says Trump approached her when she went to interview him and his wife, Melania Trump, in 2005.
Trump called Leeds’ allegations “ridiculous” and Stoynoff’s claims “a false charge”.
Carol Martin, an old friend of Carroll’s who is one of two people who told Carroll about the attack shortly after it happened, testified live before the jury on Thursday.
Martin said she advised Carroll not to report the incident to police. “He’s got a lot of lawyers,” Martin told Carroll. “He would bury her.”
Martin said she now regrets giving Carroll that advice: “I’m not proud of that.”
As for Carroll’s own claim, Martin said, “I believed it then and I believe it today.”
Dr. Ashlee Humphreys, a sociology professor at Northwestern University, was one of the final witnesses in the case. Humphreys estimated that it would cost Carroll up to $2.7 million to try to repair the damage done to her reputation by Trump’s statements.
Carroll is also seeking unspecified monetary damages for the battery, as well as emotional and damage caused by the attack.
